Time to Roam Magazine Issue 5 - October/November 2013 | Page 18

From little things, big things grow The Amazing Properts, a family of great inventors If you grew up in Australia in the 20th century, chances are your life has been made easier by a Propert. Folding Caravans are one of many treasured products designed and built by this inventive family. John and Emma Propert emigrated from England in 1877 and produced 11 children including several sons with a knack for design and innovation. Thomas and Albert Propert trained in coach building in Orange NSW and established a motor body business in the inner Sydney suburb of Newtown in 1910. In the years when Australian car manufacturing consisted of building bodies on imported 18 www.timetoroam.com.au engines and chassis, Propert established a reputation for the very best luxury vehicles. Perhaps the most successful Propert son was Charles, who designed and built kitchenware over many decades. He started out making irrigation equipment and is credited with inventing and patenting the common backyard rose sprinkler, still manufactured and sold in their hundreds today. Propert became a household name when it started making all manner of kitchen implements including flour sifters and chip cutters. In the 1970s Propert was Australia’s leading brand of kitchen and bathroom scales. By far the most successful product was a ball-driven egg beater, trademarked as the Ezy Whisk. In the days before electric beaters, the Ezy Whisk was the market-leader and exported world-wide. Adverts in the 1950s boasted they had even been endorsed by royalty. Apparently Queen Mary was most impressed when she was shown an Ezy Whisk while visiting  a London Expo one year. Whether Her Royal Highness had any idea what the domestic appliance was used for is doubtful. For ordinary Australians without electric appliances or domestic help, the Ezy Whisk was an indispensable kitchen aid. Charles Propert and his son Bertram manufactured more than a quarter of a million egg beaters a year in the early 1950s, reason why so many are still around and used even today. Thomas Propert and his son Thomas Junior